2 DEVCOM 100: Fundamentals of Development Journalism

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3 DEVCOM 100: Fundamentals of Development Journalism

Module 1
Journalism in the Philippines

LESSON 1: History Learning Outcomes

of the Philippine
At the end of the unit, the students
Press must have:

1. gained familiarity on the

T
o understand Philippine mass significant events in the history
media at present, one has to look of Philippine Journalism and of
at them in the light of history. development journalism; and
They have roots that go back quite a
way to the country's colonial past. For 2. acquired knowledge on the
example, the first book, Doctrina contributions of journalists who
Christiana, was printed in the affected the history of media
Philippines in 1593, just a little over a and development journalism in
century after John Gutenberg the Philippines.
introduced printing with movable types
in Europe, in 1425. Compare this with 3. analyzed the coverage of
the fact that the first book was not development stories in
printed in the United States until after mainstream newspapers.
1638.

The first Philippine newsletter,

Successos Felices (Glad Tidings), the equivalent of the European broadsheets, was
published in 1637, while the first American newsletter, Harris' Public Occurrences,
Both Foreign and Domestic, was put out in 1690.

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Although Successos could not be called the first Philippine news- paper, because
there is no record of other issues after this first one, it is. nevertheless, a
remarkable achievement. While the British corantos picked up the news freely
from Dutch and German sources, the Successos was more of an original work,
and not merely a compilation or a translation. The first Filipino printer, Tomas
Pinpin, who was responsible for putting out Successos, wrote about two major
national events: a Spanish naval victory over the Dutch in Cavite and a military
victory over Muslim Filipino rebels.

So, if we date the beginnings of mass communications to the invention of the

printing press in 1425, it did not take long for mass communications to reach
Philippine shores from Europe.

In 1521, the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, sailing in the name of the
Spanish Queen Isabela, discovered the Philippines for Europe. In all probability,
he brought with him the first European books, including copy of the Bible, to the
country. His chaplain and historian, Fr. Pigafetta, wrote a diary which has become
a source book on early Philippine history.

The Spanish missionaries followed in succeeding waves of expeditions to the

Philippines, bringing with them printing presses and other paraphernalia for
converting Filipinos to Christianity. The first printing presses in the country were
owned by the religious orders.

In spite of their early beginnings, however, Philippine mass media did not advance
as fast as those of other countries in Asia, like Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
For example, it seems that after that initial period of activity, the Philippine mass
media went into hibernation for a more than a century until the first local
newspaper came out in 1811. Valenzuela, a Philippine his historian, estimates
that between 1593 and the 19th century, 541 books were printed in the
Philippines.

The history of Philippine mass communication may be divided into the Spanish
Period from 1521 to 1900, the American Period from 1901 to 1946 the Post-War
period from 1946 to 1972, and the Martial Law Period from 1972 to 1986.

There was a brief revolutionary period between 1890 and 1905 which overlapped
with the end of the Spanish Period and the start of the American Period. There
was also a brief period of four years – the World War II period when the Japanese
occupied the Philippines from 1941 to 1945. But technically, the Philippines was
still a colony of the United States at that time.

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The Spanish Period

Newspapers

D
el Superior Govierno, started in 1811 was the first regularly issued
publication in the Philippines, and while it did not function as a newspaper
by modern standards, at least it was intended to be a newspaper. It carried
news about the Spanish-American war, the proceedings of the Spanish Cortes,
and in general, news from the mother country for the benefit of the Spaniards in
the Philippines. The Spanish occupation of the Philippines lasted from 1521 to
1900.

Although there were number of important

happenings in the Philippines during the early
1800s - including volcanic eruptions and Filipino
rebellions - Del Superior carried only news from
abroad, because the paper was meant for the
Spanish elite. The paper was edited by the Spanish
Governor-General himself, and therefore, it was
more of a government organ than anything else.

After 15 issues, Del Superior Govierno stopped

printing for the peculiar reason that there was no
more news to print. In other words, they had run
out of European materials to reproduce.

According to one Philippine journalism historian, Armando Malay:

It was a weekly newspaper issued by the office of the governor to inform

the Peninsulas in Manila on the events of the homeland...probably not
more than 100 copies were printed of the initial issue. Some were posted
on the walls of the stone buildings. News was about the war between
Napoleon's France versus Spain and England which were allies. Because
of rumors to the effect that the war was going badly for Spain, the Del
Superior Govierno was published by the Governor General who reprinted
the news about the war from English gazettes. Del Superior Govierno was
banned by the Spanish Cortes which passed a law prohibiting the
reprinting of accounts from foreign gazettes unless these had been
previously approved by the home government. Del Superior Govierno ceased
publication on February 7, 1812.

The banning by the Spanish Cortes of the reprinting of news from foreign
publications marked the first act of censorship in the Philippines.

The first daily newspaper was started in the Philippines in 1846. This was La
Esperanza (Hope), which turned out to be a colorless and dull newspaper, in its
attempt to avoid trouble with the censors. There was strict pre-publication
censorship in the Philippines during this time. La Esperanza dealt mostly with
non-controversial subjects in order to be on the safe side.

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Of the dailies that followed La Esperanza, the best

edited during the Spanish period was Diario de
Manila, which started publication in 1848. The paper
had its own foreign correspondent in Spain and at one
time spent P3,000 in one month for promotion
because it was competing with another good daily at
the time, El Comercio. Diario was staffed by competent
men headed by Felipe del Pan, who was considered
by historians the ablest journalist of his time.

With one exception, Diario lived the longest among

many Philippine dailies established during the
Spanish period – 38 years. This paper was
suppressed by the Spanish Governor-General in 1898
because it allegedly incited the Filipinos against
Spaniards. The worthiest rival of Diario was El
Comercio.

Because of more efficient

management, El Comercio
became the most stable
newspaper during its
time. It had the biggest
circulation and the
longest life span of any
paper during the Spanish
regime, a total of 56
years. El Comercio was at
the peak of its success
when U.S. Admiral Dewey
sailed into Manila Bay on
May 1, 1898 and brought about the downfall of the Spaniards in the Philippines.
El Comercio subsequently lost all its provincial circulation and gradually declined
during the American regime until it ceased publication in 1925.

Another paper that marked a milestone in the

history of Philippine journalism war La
Opinion, started in 1827. It marked the
beginning of political journalism in the
Philippines and perhaps it was the first
opinion magazines in this country. While the
other papers were afraid of government
censors, La Opinion was a Fighter. It was the
first paper that criticized the Spanish friars
and campaigned for the ouster of the religious
including one archbishop from the
Philippines.

Among the mass media, it was the newspaper

that first developed in the Philippines. It was
only later that the magazines, such as we
know them today, came into existence.

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Magazines

T
he early magazines in the Philippines were not known as magazine since this
is a modern term. They were known either as weeklies, fortnightlies,
monthlies, quarterlies, journal or reviews. These early publications
specialized in particular fields like commerce, industry, agriculture, the
professions, religion, government, arts, and letters.

One journalism research has suggested that the history of magazine journalism
in the Philippines started when the Royal Economic Society of the Friends of the
Country published Registro Mercantil de Manila on January 20, 1824. This journal
carried items on the products and commerce of the country and lasted eight years.
Another commercial journal was the Precios Corientos (Current Prices), which was
the first publication in the country to use the English language. Precios started
publishing on July 6, 1924, and used both Spanish and English.

Other early magazines were La Ilustracion

Filipina (first published in 1859), one of
the first illustrated journals in the
Philippines promoting culture; El
Trovador Filipino (1874), considered the
first of the intellectual journals; El Bello
Sexo (1891), considered the first women's
magazine in the country; and Patnubay
ng Katoliko (1890), the first publication
entirely in Tagalog.

A number of magazines, which were

coming out weekly starting in 1884,
might perhaps be considered a special
category. They were the satire magazines,
which used personal allusions and
sarcasm in poems, essays, short story
and literary pieces to hit the important
public officials of the day. These satire
magazines, the first of which was La
Semana Elegante (1884), became popular
because of their wit and their humor.

Colonial journalism during the Spanish period was marked by censorship by the
state and the church and by financial instability. The papers were published in
Spanish and therefore had limited circulation, reaching only the published in
Spaniards in the Philippines and the Spanish-speaking Filipino elite.

While the journalists of the period possessed graceful literacy style, their news
writing was faulty; opinion was injected into news stories; and they lacked a sense
of news values. By modern standards, therefore, papers of the Spanish period were
more literary organs than newspapers.

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Revolutionary Press

A
brief shining moment in the history of the Philippine mass media was the
rise of the revolutionary press in the latter part of the Spanish rule in the
Philippines and the early part of the American regime, approximately
between 1890 and 1905. The Philippine Revolution of 1896 was directed against
the Spaniards. After the Spaniards were beaten by combined Filipino and
American forces, the Americans took over in 1898.

The most famous of these revolutionary

papers was La Solidaridad, which first came
out on February 19, 1889. It was published
in Spain and in Spanish. It was read by the
Filipino illustrados (elite) both in Spain and
in the Philippines. This revolutionary paper
became the rallying point of the Filipino
intellectual expatriates in Europe.

Its first editor was Graciano Lopez Jaena

and among its contributors were some of the
big names in Philippine history who became
the revolutionaries heroes of 1896. These were Jose Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar
Lopez, Jaena, and Mariano Ponce.

This paper was banned by the Spanish authorities in the

Philippines but it was smuggled into the country and found
its way into Filipino homes. Since this paper was in
Spanish, however, it had a limited circulation. There was
need for a paper in one of the dialects and this paper was
provided by another revolutionary hero, Andres Bonifacio,
and his friend, Emilio Jacinto. These two, who were leaders
of the secret revolutionary society called the Katipunan,
secretly put out Kalayaan on January 1, 1896. This paper
was entirely in Tagalog and although only one issue came
out, it was credited with having fanned the revolutionary
fervor of the Filipinos.

Before Andres Bonifacio and his revolutionary and could put out the second issue,
however, the Spanish authorities discovered the location of their printing press
and Bonifacio was forced to destroy the printing press before the Spanish
authorities could move in.

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There were other revolutionary papers, like La

Independencia, founded on September 3, 1898. It was
edited by another revolutionary hero, Antonio Luna. It
became the mouthpiece of th e Filipino rebels in the war
against Spain and the Americans. Among its writers
were Rafael Palma, Jose Palma, Leon Ma. Guerrero, and
Cecilio Apostol. This paper was finally suppressed by
the American authorities.

The spirit of revolution fanned by La Independencia

continued into the period of the American occupation
in the pages of El Renacimiento. This was a very
nationalistic paper founded by Don Edgardo Ocampo
and edited by Teodoro M. Kalaw. It became famous in
the early years of the American regime because it had
an intellectual and aggressive staff.

Most of the papers that were

founded during the American
Period were published in English
and were pro-American. Many
Americans who had come over as
soldiers, teachers, and
missionaries, started their own
papers. El Renacimiento was
outstanding among the papers of
this period because of its critical
attitude towards the Americans.

After the American civil government took over from the military 1901, there was,
theoretically, freedom of the press in the Philippines. In practice, however, such
freedom was sorely limited. Although there was no prior censorship, the libel laws
were so strict that it was very easy for any government official or private person to
win a decision in court.

Perhaps this is best illustrated by the case of El Renacimiento, the fighting paper
which was killed by a libel suit in 1908. The libel suit arose out of an editorial that
the paper wrote, entitled "Aves de Rapina," which the US Secretary of the Interior,
Dean C. Worcester, thought was an attack against him. To quote the late Sen.
Claro M. Recto:

During the first decade of the century, freedom of the press was only true in the
sense that there was no previous censorship, but the libel laws were so strictly
enforced by the Courts, that to criticize a high government official, for instance, a
member of the Cabinet, meant a stiff prison term and a sizeable fine, not to mention
crippling civil damages. Teodoro Kalaw was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment
and P3,000 fine, plus a judgment for moral and punitive damages in the amount of
P25,000 for the publication of the editorial "Aves de Rapina" in El Renacimi ento,
written by Fidel A. Reyes, upon complaint of Secretary of the Interior Worcester. The
latter was not mentioned in the article either by name, or by the title of his office,
but was allowed to prove, by testimonial evidence that it was he who was alluded to
in the words “vampire," "vulture”, and "owl" used in the allegedly offensive article.
Worcester also succeeded in obtaining judgment from the Supreme Court against
such persons as Galo Lichauco, Angel Jose, Mariano Cansipit, Felipe Barreto, and
Manuel Palma, who for purely patriotic motive contributed some funds to the
foundation of the newspaper, for the payment of P25,000 as indemnity. Even the
names El Renacimiento and Muling Pagsilang went under the hammer and were
awarded to Worcester. No prosecutor would file such information with our Courts
today nor would a court hand down a verdict of conviction in a similar case."

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The American Occupation

T
he second period in the history of the Philippine press was the period of the
American occupation, which started about 1900 in America gained complete
control of Manila and most of the country.

Newspapers

T
he first English-language daily in the
Philippines was established in 1898
appropriately enough by an Englishman,
Thomas Gowan. This was the first Manila Times in
the Philippines. The original Manila Times existed
only for 32 years. It changed hands many times until
Alejandro Roces Sr., the first newspaper chain owner
in the Philippines, bought the paper in 1927. At the
time that Roces bought the paper, he already owned
Taliba, a Tagalog daily; La Vanguardia, Spanish
daily; and the Manila Tribune, an English daily. In
1930, Roces disbanded the Times because he saw no
need for two English papers.

The oldest existing newspaper in the Philippines is the

Manila Bulletin which started as a shipping journal in
1900. It was only in 1912 that this paper, founded by
an American, Carson Taylor, widened its scope to
include news of general interest. The Bulletin
developed a reputation as the mouth piece of the
American community in the Philippines even after
Philippine independence was granted in 1946 and as
long as Taylor was its editor, publisher, and owner.

When Hans Menzi bought the paper in 1957, he

modernized the paper's format and gave the
newspaper a Filipino orientation, while retaining its
shipping and business pages.

The press during the early American

Period was dominated by pro-American
newspapers, naturally enough. It was not
until 1920 that a pro-Filipino newspaper
was published - the Philippines Herald.
This nationalistic paper was founded at
the instigation of Manuel L. Quezon, who
became president of the Philippines
later.One of the early editors of the
Philippines Herald was Carlos P. Romulo
who later became president of the United
Nations General Assembly and became
famous in Philippine diplomacy.

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Newspaper Chains

O
ne significant development during the American regime was the start of the
newspaper chain in the Philippines. The first Filipino newspaper chain
owner was Alejandro Roces Sr., whose sons Joaquin "Chino" and Ramon
were to inherit and expand his mass media empire.

The Roces chain was known as the TVT (Taliba-

Vanguardia-Tribune). It started in 1916 when Roces
bought La Vanguardia, a Spanish daily, and Taliba,
a Tagalog daily. At the time that Roces bought these
two papers, he was new to the newspaper game and
the two papers were not taken seriously by the
readers. Roces pirated Romulo from the Herald and
made him the first editor of the Tribune. Together
they built the Tribune into one of the two leading
papers during the American period.

The other leading English-language newspaper at the time was the Herald, which
was part of a rival newspaper chain - the DMHM (El Debate-Mabuhay-Herald-
Monday Post).

These two chains competed with each other up to

the time of the outbreak of World War II in 1941.
The first publication to be called a magazine in the
Philippines was the Philippine Magazine, which was
established in 1904. It was started as a semi-
government publication for public school teachers
in the Philippines, and at first it was called the
Philippine Teacher. It was only in 1905 that it was
renamed the Philippine Magazine, and in 1906, it
went from government to a private company, the
Philippine Education Company.

A significant development during the American

period was the chain of magazines in the vernacular
which was started by Ramon Roces, another son of
Alejandro Roces Sr., in 1923 with the publication of
Liwayway in Tagalog. Other vernacular magazines
of Ramon Roces followed Bisaya for the East Visayan region in 1932, Hiligaynon
for the West Visayan region in 1934, and Bannawag for the Ilocano region in the
north in 1940. These vernacular magazines were similar in content, format, and
appeal. They were meant for readers in the rural areas. Their contents were mostly
fiction, entertainment, and how-to-do-it articles.

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Another magazine was founded in 1907, floundered and was taken over by Robert
McCullough Dick in 1908. Dick built the paper into the leading English-language
magazine before Martial Law in 1972 - the Philippines Free Press. The Free Press
built its reputation on its fearless crusades against government corruption. In the
years before Martial Law, it became a staunch nationalist.

During World War II, the Philippine mass media were closed. Only Liwayway of
the pre-war publications was allowed to publish during the Japanese Occupation
from 1942 to 1945. Even then, the paper was completely in the hands of the
Japanese and was used for propaganda purposes.

Liwayway of the pre-war publications was allowed to publish during the Japanese
Occupation from 1942 to 1945. Even then the paper was completely in the hands
of the Japanese and was used for propaganda purposes.

Post-War Period

Newspapers

A
number of newspapers sprang up right
after the war. However, most of them were
fly-by-night and lived short lives. Only few
of these postwar newspapers survived, among
them the Manila Chronicle. The Chronicle was
put up by a group of prewar newspapermen in
1945, but sold few years later to Don Eugenio
Lopez, businessman and brother of Vice-
President Fernando Lopez.

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Meanwhile, the prewar newspapers were revived, including the Manila Bulletin and
Philippines Herald. The Tribune was not. Joaquin Roces who had taken over the
newspaper business from his father, put up the new Manila Times in place of the
Tribune. The Tagalog member of TYT (Taliba) was revived but the Spanish paper
(La Vanguardia) was never reestablished. In its place, Roces put up an afternoon
paper, the Daily Mirror, and together with the Weekly Women's Magazine (the
leading women's magazine in the country before martial law), the Roces newspaper
chain was reestablished.

Up to the time of Martial Law, the Manila Times led all the Philippine English-
language dailies in circulation, with an audience circulation of 250,000 copies
daily. The Manila Chronicle, on the other hand, was building up a name as a paper
of quality. Under its new editor, Rod Reyes, the Chronicle developed its
interpretative reporting and perfected its process printing.

Philippine mass media before Martial Law

T
he Philippine mass media just before Martial Law was proclaimed on
September 21, 1972 may be described broadly in the following terms: 1) They
were privately owned and pursued their objectives independently of
government control; 2) They were multi-lingual, but leadership was exercised by
the English-language press; 3) They were Manila-centered and needed to be
developed in the provinces; 4) They were politically free but were controlled by big
business; and 5) They lacked ethics and professionalism.

They were privately owned and pursued their objectives independently of

government control. The role of the Philippine mass media in national
development was of a different kind. It was something pursued independently by
the private press – the less government intervention, the better. The goals were set
by the private press itself, not by the government.

They were multi-lingual, but leadership was exercised by the English-

language press. English had become, before Martial Law, the language of
metropolitan journalism in the Philippines and opinion leadership was exercised
by the six leading Manila dailies and the leading Philippine weekly, which were all
published in English.

They were Manila-centered and needed to be developed in the provinces.

There was a communication gap in the rural areas where 34 million Filipinos lived
in the early 1970s.

They were politically free but were controlled by big business. The Philippine
press enjoyed great political freedom in theory. In practice, however, such political
freedom was limited. A limitation on this press freedom in the Philippines was
economic control - by big business. Even if the Philippine press was politically free
to a great extent, it was not truly free in the economic sense, because it owned by
vested interests.

They lacked ethics and professionalism. The Philippine mass media just before
Martial Law were bombarded left and right with criticisms.

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From one side, the government trained its guns on the members of the Fourth
Estate, saying in so many words that they were irresponsible. They were
irresponsible because all they did was carp and contribute to the building of
negative attitude towards government and whatever it was doing for national
development.

From the other side, there were the self-appointed critics of the mass media, both
in and outside the Fourth Estate, who wrote self-confession articles, or inside
stories, all relating how corrupt the mass media people were.

The most articulate and the most powerful critic of the Philippine press before
Martial Law was no less than President Ferdinand Marcos himself. In his book.
Today's Revolution: Democracy, published in 1971, President Marcos complained
that the Philippine mass media were sensational, unfair, irresponsible, unethical
and were used by their oligarch owners to serve their selfish political and economic
interests. President Marcos said in his book:

“The permeation of oligarchic ‘values’ is also managed through the

control of the means of mass communication. It is no longer a secret that
the displeasure of the oligarchs is communicated through radio and
television commentaries and newspaper columns. The media have
become the weapon of a special class rather than serve as a public forum.
The so-called "editorial prerogative" has been used to justify what is best
described as "selective journalism.”

Marcos quoted samples of what he called irresponsible journalism from a column

in the Manila Chronicle, owned by his arch enemy, Eugenio Lopez:

“Finally, Mr. Marcos, playing the favorite trick of every scoundrel, poses as
a martyr and tells all of us that in spite of the constant attacks on his
honest, hardworking, and great person, he will allow the press its freedom
and will not do anything to abridge freedom of speech.

First of all, if Mr. Marcos feels he is that powerful and summons that much
popular support, why doesn't he try putting an end to freedom of speech
in his country?

The answer to this question is obviously that even in his insufferable

arrogance, Mr. Marcos realizes that the Filipinos value freedom of speech
as much as they value life and if they did not surrender this to the
succeeding Spanish, American, and Japanese conquerors, they certainly
will not surrender it to him.”

The former president also quoted the Philippines Free Press:

“On the other land, how can he bear being President – and the most hated
or despised man in the country? If we have to stand him, okay, but how
could he stand himself? He'd smell. And if he smelt to the nation, how
could he close his nose to the odor? One of the punishments of hell so
vividly described in spiritual retreats, which aim at grace through terror,
is the subjection of the damned to all the Gadawful smells that the fanatical
imagination can conjure up. Marcos would smell to high heavens if he did
not earn the respect of the people instead of their hatred and contempt...”

It cannot be denied that there were many journalists in the country who were not
above accepting bribe money, or even blackmailing people. Perhaps, there were
too many of them for the good of the Philippine pres. It also cannot be denied that
some owners were oligarchs who used their newspapers and other mass media
units to serve their own interests. But the cure for an abusive press is not
repression. As it turned out, the Martial Law that Marcos imposed on this
irresponsible press did not cure the disease. It only made it worse.

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Martial Law Period

The Beginnings

I
t did not come a surprise therefore that when President Marcos decided to
proclaim Martial Law (Proclamation 1081, signed September 21, 1972), the
mass media were among the first to be brought to heel.

In Proclamation 1081, President Marcos

said that one of the reasons he proclaimed
Martial Law was because the lawless
elements had been mounting massive
propaganda assaults against the
government through the:

publications, broadcasts, and

dissemination of deliberately slanted
and overly exaggerated news stories
and news commentaries as well as file,
vile, foul, and scurrilous statements,
utterance, writings, and pictures
through the press-radio television
media and through leaflets, college
campus newspapers, and some
newspapers published and still being
published by these lawless elements.

In the same document, the President also claimed that the mass media were
infiltrated and controlled by persons “who are sympathetic to the insurgents who
consequently intensified their propaganda assault against the government and the
military establishment of the government."

The very first presidential decree (issued on September 24, 1972) after the
proclamation of Martial Law reorganized the government bureaucracy and created
a Department of Public Information.

And the President's very first Letter of Instruction issued September 22, 1972,
directed the Press Secretary and the Secretary of National Defense to “take over
and control all communications media for the duration of the present national
emergency”.

On the same day, however, that President Marcos ordered all mass media closed;
he also authorized the continued operation of the government radio and television
stations in Manila - the Voice of the Philippines (opera ted by the National Media
Production Center) and the stations of the Philippine Broadcasting Service.

He also authorized the operation of two privately owned mass media enterprises -
the four-month-old Daily Express published by Juan Perez, but reportedly owned
by Roberto Benedicto, a crony of Marcos, and the Kanlaon Broadcasting System
(also owned by Benedicto) which later changed its name to Radio Philippines
Network, because they had "not participated in the communist conspiracy” to
overthrow the Philippine government. These mass media therefore could lay claim
to the distinction that they were the only one which were not closed by martial
law.

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September 21, 1972 was indeed a turning point in the history Philippine mass
media. For the first time in history, Martial Law was declared in the Philippines,
and for the first time since the turn of the century, controls were imposed on
Philippine mass media, which in recent decades had been one of the freest in the
world.

Max Soliven
Joaquin “Chino” Roces

Teodoro Locsin Sr.

Napoleon Rama

When Martial Law was

proclaimed, dozens of
the top journalists in
the country were
picked up and brought
to the stockades on
charges of subversion.
Among the big names
who spent some time
in jail were: Joaquin
Roces, publisher of the
Manila Times; Eugenio
Lopez, Jr., publisher of
the Manila Chronicle;
his editor, Amando
Doronila; Teodoro M.
Locsin, Sr., editor of
Philippines Free Press; Luis Mauricio, editor of Graphic; Max Soliven, top columnist
of the Manila Times; Ernesto Granada, columnist of the Manila Chronicle;
Napoleon Rama, staff writer of Philippines Free Press; and Juan L. Mercado, joint
chief executive of the Press Foundation of Asia. They were eventually released.
Except Eugenio Lopez Jr. who made a dramatic escape form the military stockade
and slipped out to the United States.

Those of the pre-Martial Law journalists who were not put in jail fared only slightly
better than their colleagues who were taken in; they had no more jobs, they did
not know what to do, they were assailed with fear and doubts about their future,
they were insecure, confused and bewildered.

The atmosphere in the journalistic world during those early days of Martial Law
was one of unreality. The initial reaction of Filipino journalists was disbelief. They
had heard whispered rumors a few months before that President Marcos was going
to proclaim Martial Law, but they did not take the rumors seriously.

MMSU Department of Development Communication MODULE 1

17 DEVCOM 100: Fundamentals of Development Journalism

This generation of Filipino journalists was raised in the tradition of libertarianism

brought over by the Americans when they occupied the Philippines at the turn of
the century, and this generation could not believe that a Filipino president would
support that cherished tradition of press freedom.

But it happened, and when it did, they were shocked and stunned. Few took to
the hills or escaped abroad. But most decided to stay to mourn their lost freedom.
After decades of unfettered freedom, these journalists had reason to mourn the
sudden turn of events. One journalist summed up the feelings of Filipino
journalists at the time when he told this author: "It was as if a whole world had
crumbled - and a new order has come to pass! That old world may never return!”

Two years after Martial Law, most of the mass media practitioners rendered jobless
when their newspapers, radio, and television stations and other media agencies
were closed down, had found new jobs in new media units or in other occupations
and professions – teaching, law, business, farming, poultry raising, grape raising,
etcetera.

Those who had chosen to return to the journalists held in under Martial Law,
however, still had to regain their old self-confidence. The Philippine press in 1974
was a far cry from the free-wheeling, blustering, swaggering, unbridled, sometimes
sensational, sometimes frantic, press of the pre-Martial Law days.

The rise of the alternative press

I
n the beginning of Martial Law, these methods combined were able to stifle
dissent in the mass media. Those who disagreed with the government were
either in the stockades, in the hills or six feet underground.

Jose Burgos Jr.

Towards the end of the 1970s, however, few

brave souls began to test the waters, so to
speak. When the government started to say
that they were back to normal, they cautiously
began to criticize. The earliest of these few
brave souls was Jose Burgos Jr., who founded
the We Forum on May 1, 1977 as a weekly for
the youth. It began publishing news that
could not be found in the muzzled crony press,
as the newspaper owned by the Marcos
cronies were then called.

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18 DEVCOM 100: Fundamentals of Development Journalism

Meanwhile, martial law was lifted in January 1980, after seven years and four
months. But the lifting was only in theory. Later it was leaked out to the foreign
press that on the eve of the lifting of Martial Law, President Marcos signed two
"secret decrees" which among other things, increased the penalty for subversion
to death. And the word subversion covered the use of "printing, broadcast, or
television facilities, or any form of mass communication" for any activity that tends
to destabilize the government or undermine or destroy the faith and loyalty of the
citizenry."

In the next few years, the We Forum became bolder and bolder and its circulation
increased It started coming out thrice-weekly and was planning on becoming a
daily when it was raided by the military and closed down on December 7, 1982.
Burgos and a number of his staff members,
including columnist Soc Rodrigo (former
senator) and Armando Malay (veteran news
paperman), were jailed.

The We Forum had over stepped its bounds. It

had published a series of articles questioning
the authenticity of the Marcos war medals.

When Jose Burgos, Jr. was released, he

published Malaya on January 11, 1983 as an
English-language weekly tabloid to take the
place of We Forum. Before We Forum was closed,
Malaya was its Tagalog sister paper. At about
this time, the Philippine Collegian, student paper
of the University of the Philippines, had also
been pursuing a militant brand of journalism, to
the eternal shame of its counterparts in the
professional media.

The We Forum and the Philippine Collegian

were the forerunners of what was to be
called the alternative press in the
Philippines in the early 1980s. They were
called such because they provided an
alternative source of information to the
crony press which served only pro
government.

More than anything else, it was the

assassination of former senator Benigno
Aquino on his return from three years of
exile in the United States on August 21,
1983, that the floodgates of press freedom
in the Philippines.

When Senator Aquino was shot as he

stepped down from his plane at the Manila
International Airport that day, the first
reaction of the crony was silence. They did
not know whether to carry the story or not
and waited for instructions from above
their publishers and beyond, meaning
Malacanang.

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19 DEVCOM 100: Fundamentals of Development Journalism

The very first indication that

something was amiss was a small item
on television saying that Senator
Aquino was shot at the airport, and no
further elaborations. According to
Arlene Babst, one of the critical
columnists of Bulletin Today: “I called
Bulletin after the killing on the twenty-
first and asked if the story would be
headline. And they said they didn't
know yet how they were to play it.
Imagine that!”

Even before Aquino's arrival, the crony

press had been told to run nothing on
his arrival. So, until the tragedy at the
airport tarmac, people were generally
kept in dark about the Aquino arrival.

But when the tragedy happened, there

was no stopping the story from
spreading, although at first, the crony
newspapers and radio stations tried to
ignore the event.

Times Journal ran the story of the funeral procession, participated in by some five
million people and lasting 11 hours from early morning to late night, below the
fold on the first page. Channel 7 gave ten seconds to the event but the other
stations ignored it completely. Then, first by word of mouth, then by Radio Veritas,
the Catholic radio station, and by other means, the word spread like wildfire.

Radio Veritas was the only station that gave the story the importance it deserved,
giving full day coverage for days to the events from the shooting at the airport to
the funeral wake and historic funeral procession.

At the vigil for the slain Aquino at Sto. Domingo Church in Quezon City,
meanwhile, the thousands of mourners were buying at P5 or more a copy of xerox
copies of the front page of the Japan Times English edition, carrying the story that
soldiers had killed Aquino. Then video cassettes carrying footages taken by foreign
correspondents of the shooting at the airport were being sold and circulated. The
public was getting information from abroad through the wonders of modern
technology.

Among other things, it was xerox journalism and cassette journalism that made it
impossible for the authoritarian regime of Marcos to suppress information on this
tragic event of national importance.

Meantime, among the print media, Malaya and Masa, sister publications of the
padlocked We Forum of Burgos, took up the cudgels for free expression. They went
from weekly to twice weekly to daily in the weeks that followed the assassination
and their circulations increased steadily. The people were starved for information
and they gobbled up every copy of these papers that were sold in the streets. About
a dozen tabloids also sprang up in the streets at this time, including the Manila
Paper of former Assemblyman Reuben Canoy and the Philippine Times of veteran
newsman Rommel Corro, who eventually landed in jail for nine months because
of a story he ran claiming that General Fabian Ver was linked to the Aquino killing.

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20 DEVCOM 100: Fundamentals of Development Journalism

Eugenia D. Apostol, publisher of Mr. and Ms., decided to put out Special editions
in the first week of September 1983 to cover the post assassination events and the
trial of the accused assassins. Apostol also put out The Weekly Inquirer on
February 4, 1985 to report on the Agrava Board hearing on the Aquino murder.
The newsweekly gave way to the Philippine Daily Inquirer on December 9, 1985
after the Board landed down its decisions. The Inquirer, because of its weekly
reports which were not presented by the crony publications, quickly sold in the
newsstands.

Veritas newsmagazine was founded on

November 27, 1983 by a group of Catholic
Church and business leaders, led by Jaime
Cardinal Sin, head of the Philippine Catholic
Church, and Vicente Jayme, head of the
Bishops Business Conference of the
Philippines. The Catholic paper then joined the
other opposition papers in the fray and
together they became the alternative press that
started giving the crony papers a run for their
money.

At this point, the government was too stunned

by the turn of events the growing boldness of
the mass media and the growing size of the
crowd that were demonstrating the streets in
anger at the Aquino assassination. The
circulation of the alternative papers continued
to increase white the circulation of the crony papers plummeted. The business
leaders who founded Veritas called for a boycott movement against the crony
papers, which lasted from September 1983 to the early part of 1984. When the
boycott movement was launched, the cony papers trembled and their circulations
dropped drastically during those months.

By the end of 1985, when the fall of the Marcos regime was drawing near, the
alternative press had pushed the crony papers into a corner. Malaya's circulation
had jumped up to 300,000 and 400,000 at one point to compete with the Bulletin
Today. Mr. and Ms. had overtaken the Bulletin Today in terms of circulations of
600,000 to 800,000 per issue at certain points during that period.

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21 DEVCOM 100: Fundamentals of Development Journalism

Then on December 9, 1985, the Philippine Inquirer became a daily and 41 a wonder
of Philippine publishing. At the start of 1986, because of its trio of the most widely
read columnists at the time – Louis Beltran, Max Soliven, and Art Borjal, the
Inquirer became the circulation leader with 350,000 copies daily. The Inquirer was
followed by the revival of the pre-Martial Law Manila Times, by Ramon Roces on
February 5, 1986, just shortly before the snap presidential elections.

So, when the Marcos regime was finally overthrown on February 26, 1986, the
alternative press had effectively taken center stage and ousted the crony papers,
except for Bulletin Today. And today (1987), the alternative press has become the
establishment press.

Lessons from Martial Law

T
here are a few lessons from martial law history that bear repeating. First,
when news is censored in an authoritarian society, rumors and gossip will
proliferate because people become starved for information.

Second, when the mass media are muzzled, there is no check to government abuse
and graft and corruption becomes rampant.

Third, when the press is gagged, it deteriorates. Journalists lose their initiative in
gathering and commenting on the news, they lose their self-respect, and in the
long run, the press loses credibility. And without credibility, the press is lost.

Fourth, when a government tries to hide the truth, it may succeed at first. But in
the long run, the truth will come out from other sources. When that happens,
people will lose their trust in their government. And when the government loses
credibility, everything is lost.

Fifth, with the rise of modern communications technology, like the xerox machine
and video cassettes, it is no longer possible for any society however authoritarian,
to impose complete or near complete censorship

Finally, people will always demand to know the truth, and they will eventually get
it from whatever sources, by whatever means. And then the truth will make them
free.

You can also watch a video on the history of Philippine Journalism as

additional input for this topic by visiting this site:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04RpfRF9p9o

MMSU Department of Development Communication MODULE 1

22 DEVCOM 100: Fundamentals of Development Journalism

LESSON 2: Roots of Development Journalism

The Beginnings

D
evelopment discourse in Asia began sometime in the middle of the 20 th
century, when many Asian countries gained independence from colonial
imperial powers. National leaders these newly independent countries set
agendas for national development and economic growth. Owing legacy of
Western-style administration and economic activity, only model of development
available to these countries was that Europe America. This model development
was stimulated by economic aid from the Western world. Some researchers refer
this whole process of adopting European development model across former
colonies in the era after World War II as the “development project".

In the 1960s, the United Nations set the agenda for economic growth of poor
countries Asia and Africa. It was declared the First Development Decade, and
international agencies made their thrust the transfer technology from the rich
North to the poor South. This was the time when high-yielding varieties of food
crops were introduced in developing countries. Large dams and power stations
were constructed. The idea was to transform traditional societies into modern,
technology-driven societies. Modernization or development was seen "the process
by which individuals change from traditional way of life to a more complex,
technologically advanced, and rapidly changing style of life," as postulated by
communication researcher Everett Rogers in 1969. Communication was thought
to play a key role in this process of change. It was argued that widespread behavior
change could be attained only when mass media were harnessed for that purpose.

Thus, development communication was defined as the use of communication for

further development. In 1976, Rogers identified the two roles of communication in
aiding development and social change: (1) providing technical information about
development problems and possibilities and about appropriate innovations, in
response to local needs; and (2) circulating information about the self-development
accomplishments of local groups so that other such groups may profit from the
experience and perhaps be challenged to achieve a similar performance.

Development Communication
and Development Journalism

Development communication

D
evelopment journalism is sometimes confused with development
communication. These are, however, two different concepts and have
different origins.

Development communication has been defined as the application of

communication technologies and processes for social change or development of
society. It can be carried out through a variety of ways – interpersonal
communication, theater, and mass communication tools such as radio and
television.

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23 DEVCOM 100: Fundamentals of Development Journalism

This concept developed in the West in

the 1940s, when scholars and
academics postulated that development
communication could be used as a tool
to bring about change and development
in newly independent countries, which
were poor and underdeveloped.
Development communication
techniques have been primarily applied
in developing countries to reach people
with messages regarding new
agricultural varieties, contraception,
health, and hygiene, and the like. As such, development communication was an
extension of the concept and practice of agricultural extension.

In Asia, the concept of

development communication
originated in the Philippines.
The College of Development
Communication of the
University of the Philippines
Los Baños (UPLB) is
recognized as the pioneer in
the teaching of development
communication. Over the
years, it has provided
graduate and postgraduate
education in development
communication to faculty members of state universities and colleges in the
Philippines, as well as in other countries of the Asia Pacific region.

Starting as the Office of Extension and Publications under the then UP College of
Agriculture in 1954, it evolved into a full-fledged Department of Agricultural
Communication in 1968 and was renamed Department of Development
Communication in 1974, offering the world's first degree program in development
communication. The college has a full department of development journalism,
which offers courses on reporting development news for print and electronic
media.

Widely credited as the pioneer in the concept and

teaching of development communication is Dr.
Nora C. Quebral, who started her career at the
then University of the Philippines College of
Agriculture (UPCA, now UPLB). In the 1970s, Dr.
Quebral and her colleagues in the department
developed the program for a Bachelor of Science in
Development Communication. What makes the
curriculum for this degree program different is
primarily its inclusion of courses that equip
students with the "what, not just the "how" of
development communication. Quebral, however,
says that the UPLB did not "invent" the concept of
communication as a support to development.
She notes, further: "If any one person did, a man by the name of Erskine Childers
would be closest to it, as far as I can make out. We did coin the name development
communication independently of others and gave it to our department before the
phrase became fashionable. We have also, I think, contributed a fair share to the
initial conceptualization of the discipline".

MMSU Department of Development Communication MODULE 1

24 DEVCOM 100: Fundamentals of Development Journalism

Quebral defines development communication as both the art and science of

human communication linked to a society's planned transformation from a state
of poverty to one of dynamic socio-economic growth that makes for greater equity
and the larger unfolding of individual potential. Genaro Ong Jr. of the
Communication Foundation of Asia (CFA), on the other hand, says "development
communication is an educational process of putting modern media of social
communication at the service of development to elicit a human and ultimately, a
social response in people it seeks to serve." While Quebral's definition puts
economic growth as the environment for an egalitarian and fulfilling human life,
CFA's approach is concerned more with redirecting content rather than with
innovative techniques.

Development journalism

W
hile development communication as a discipline was taking shape in
agricultural universities, similar thinking emerged among practitioners
of journalism, which led to the birth of development journalism in the
1960s.

The origin of the term "development journalism" or

"development reporting" can be traced back to the
history of the Press Foundation of Asia (PFA). The
foundation was an offshoot of the Asian program of
the International Press Institute (IPI), which had
initiated a project not only to investigate such
questions as the role of newspapers in Asian
societies but also to promote professionalism and
integrity in Asian journalism. In some countries,
national press watchdogs in the form of press
institutes were set up, like The Press Institute of
India and the Philippine Press Institute. Veteran Sri
Lankan journalist Abhaya Gamini Perera "Tarzie"
Vittachi played a key role as head of the IPI project Tarzie Vittachi
based in Kuala Lumpur.

The IPI project moved to Manila in 1964, when Amitabha Chowdhury, an editor
from Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), took over from Vittachi. He organized training
programs for journalists and helped in establishing five more national press
institutes in Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and China.

But Chowdhury and other press leaders in Asia did not want to play second fiddle
to IPI for long. They all felt the need for an autonomous press body for Asia. Thus
was Press Foundation of Asia (PFA) born-with help from newspapers across Asia
and from donors such as the Ford Foundation.

The PFA had close links with the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, and it
was housed in the foundation's headquarters in Manila. Incidentally, all key
personalities connected with PFA won the Magsaysay Award in Journalism in
different years: Vittachi (1959), Chowdhury (1961), and Indonesian journalist
Mochtar Lubis (1958). The PFA received the award for international understanding
in 1991.

MMSU Department of Development Communication MODULE 1

25 DEVCOM 100: Fundamentals of Development Journalism

One of the key concepts in the PFA's charter was relevance of content in the Asian
press. The region's newspapers at that time were dominated by news about
national leaders and politicians and trivial information on celebrities, socialites,
crime, scandals, and sports. Very few of them addressed in depth social and
economic changes overtaking the daily lives of Asian citizens. The press did not
take up such critical questions as the consequences of the many development
plans being executed by governments and the impact of rapid industrialization
and urbanization.

Vittachi (1991) described the problem this way: "When five people die of starvation
in a certain village in an Asian country, newspapers report it as an event. But
when tens of thousands of people go through slow starvation and widespread
malnutrition for months or even years, it is a process that seldom gets covered.”

Amitabha Chowdhury asked "Why not

devote the PFA to sensitizing Asian reporters
to the process and send them out to look for
a news beat which will be focused on the
economic and social changes that are taking
place in Asia?"

This thinking led to the development of a

unique news feature service in 1968 to
provide model stories for the region's press.
It was named Development Economic and
Population Themes News, or DEPTHnews
for short. The two journalists called this
exercise "development journalism." Juan L.
Mercado edited the weekly DEPTHnews
until 1975, when he joined the United
Nations. Upon his retirement from the UN in
1994, he served as part-time executive
assistant of the PFA, which closed down its Amitabha Chowdhury
Manila office and ceased operations in 2000.

The DEPTHnews feature service, which was available in several national editions,
became very popular among members of PFA and other Asian newspapers. The
foundation also began training courses in development journalism, and trained
about 250 Asian journalists within three years. It developed a 12-week advanced
course on population and development reporting with topics like development
economics, sociology, demography, and statistics integrated with writing exercises
and media analysis.

The term "development journalism" is also attributed to Alan Chalkley, head of a

training course for economic writers held August 1968 in the Philippines.
According to Chalkley, a journalist's main task was to inform and give readers the
facts; and the secondary task was to interpret, to put the facts in their framework
and, where possible, to draw conclusions. These were the tasks of all reporters.

The development journalist, Chalkley postulated, had a third task, a positive one
that may be called "promotion-not only to give facts and their interpretation-but
also to promote them and drive the point to readers." "You must get your readers
to realize how serious the development problem is, to think about the problem, to
open their eyes to the possible solutions to punch that hole in the vicious circle,"
Chalkley said while defining development journalism. Chalkley also emphasized
that the focus of such writing is ordinary people and not the elite. Therefore, the
journalist must use simple words and not jargon.

MMSU Department of Development Communication MODULE 1

26 DEVCOM 100: Fundamentals of Development Journalism

REFERENCES

MASLOG, Crispin C. 1988. Philippine Communication: An Introduction. Laguna:

Philippine Association of Communication Educators.

SANTOS, Jose Bimbo F. and Melanie Y. Pinlac. 2007. Back to the past: A timeline
of press freedom. Retrieved from https://cmfr-phil.org/media-ethics-
responsibility/ethics/back-to-the-past-a-timeline-of-press-freedom/.

DINESH, Sharma C. 2007. Development Journalism: An Introduction. Quezon

City: Ateneo de Manila University.

http://commmedia.aijc.com.ph/comm_media/exhibit_hall/the_hall_evo_
newspaper.html

https://philippinepresshistory.wordpress.com/

https://www.rmaward.asia/rmtli/eugenia-apostol-a-lifetime-lamplighter/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04RpfRF9p9o

MMSU Department of Development Communication MODULE 1

27 DEVCOM 100: Fundamentals of Development Journalism

ACTIVITY 1

F
rom the point of view of development reporting, analyze the content of
any three national daily newspapers published in print or online.
Monitor the selected dailies for five (5) consecutive days beginning from
the date of your choice. Do the following in the analysis:

• Identify development stories, including those written by the newspaper's

staff. Identify those that were released by wire services and feature
agencies,

• Prepare a broad list of headlines, provide dates of news release and

newspapers' names.

• If there are too many stories, categorize them. Put in a separate category
any development-themed editorials, opinion articles, pictures, and the like,
by using the following matrix:

HEADLINE NEWSPAPER DATE OF ISSUE

News

Feature

Opinion

Editorial

Picture

• Do a short qualitative analysis of the coverage. Is the coverage good? Bad?

Excellent? Needs improvement? Elaborate your answer.

MMSU Department of Development Communication MODULE 1

28 DEVCOM 100: Fundamentals of Development Journalism

LONG EXAMINATION 1

T
ake your Long Examination 1 using the Google Form to be posted in our
Messenger group.

MMSU Department of Development Communication MODULE 1